” With most issues Trump is playing a cynical game of base management. He could care less about the economy or the evangelical agenda. But his dog whistles and bigotry on race are genuine and in fact the core of his being ”

Not really … what Trump & Co with the help of Bannon is actually trying to do albeit screwing it up left and right is to apply Mao’s sophisticated principals of Propaganda .

Luckily for us both Bannon and the Whitehouse are displaying their gross incompetence for one and all to see

I don’t believe I’m defending Polanski, but I wish you would select a different example on the day after Charles Manson dies. This may be one case where some compassion can be given to the perpetrator. What moral demands can we make of someone who’s wife was so brutally and senselessly murdered? And for that matter, even Manson was abused and abandoned in childhood. I hope you’re saying that our morality has to include compassion. We could destroy all the art made by artists that took advantage of their models… It wasn’t Weinstein’s sexual advances, it was his power play that was most disturbing, his threats to destroy a career. Likewise Moore’s threat ‘no one will believe you, you’re just a girl.”

Louis- are you are rationalizing, and attempting to exonerate Polanski for the rape of a 14 year old girl because his’ wife was so brutally and senselessly murdered’? You are now turning the whole evil on its head and are confusing the perpetrator with ‘victim’
Everyone of these pedophiles is sick and amoral to varying degrees but all will be very happy to be provided with a raison’d’etre for their existence. The perpetrator only thinks about himself, and doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the damage caused to his victims,
It’s society’s job to protect the powerless from those who use their power for sexual gain, no matter what..

Dolores – To borrow the words of Bill Maher … you cant be more offended than the victim is . And the victim in Polanski’s case has not only forgiven him but demanded that the CA courts drop the case and leave her alone

And there were extenuating circumstances in that case . Like the fact that the girls mother all but sold her daughters services to Polanski

Roman Polanski was 43 years old when he drugged and raped Samantha Gailey, then a 13-year-old girl. And while I would probably give a pass to a 15-year-old getting carried away with a consenting and willing 13-year-old who sincerely confuse the sensations and emotions brought on by the onset of puberty as being in love with each other; Especially if they had to grow up in a dysfunctional family… Polanski was a grown mature adult who knew exactly what he was doing when he drugged Samantha (a very predatory behavior) with a combination of alcohol and quaaludes so that he could rape her. Sorry… But millions of people experience emotional/physical pain and hardships of every description, and yet don’t turn out to be vicious murderers and rapists.

Also, while I think that it was a very noble gesture on the part of Samantha Gailey to forgive Polanski, there is the issue of where does society draw the line between forgiving and condoning criminal behavior to consider. Especially in a situation which will then create a legal precedent for others to follow suit.

It might even be that Polanski’s victim, knowingly or not, has presented us with a test of our morality. Clearly, victims past, present and future await our justice, our dignty and decency now rather than later.

Zero tolerance, equal justice under the law, and when the Polanski’s, the Weinstein’s, the Cononyer’s, the Roy Moore’s, et al ad nauseum buy their way out, then we must strip them of their wealth, position and power. Power is the root of their disease, and we must protect victims from power that normalizes abuse. This is the 21st century, not the 14th.